Abundant Acreage Available

Backed by Scorsese, writer and director Angus Maclachlin shows the brilliance possible in independent film. In Abundant Acreage, MacLachlin creates a cinema-graphically rich portrayal of a multi-generational family whose own comedic tragedy is interrupted by a band of interlopers. Simply beautiful. What an immersive film experience of laughter, tears, and drama is all about. You want every person in America to see this film. (....and then go watch Junebug, MacLaghlin's acclaimed 2005 Drama/Comedy)

Country life. It's pretty slow most of the time. What I found noteworthy was how a very Christian culture, played by the older brother, tends to react when the previous 'nonreligious' caretakers decide to shake things up and reconcile their history with this piece of land.

The elephant in the room here is the brother, whose religious convictions only serve to make him come across as an unreasonable fool. It's sad, because the first half hour is lovely. The relationship between the two main characters is sweet and believable, but the religious aspect soon overshadows all the positives in the narrative. It's simply just too much to bear. Clearly being religious is fine, but when it eclipses reason we have wandered into absurd territory and that character becomes kind of a buffoon. This is what happens here. Nobody wants to repeatedly get hammered over the head with God this and Satan that. Willingly giving away land and a family home just doesn't happen for any reason. Then there's the adoptive element too, which is handled in an equally ham handed fashion. Oh, you're not blood so you're not entitled to a darn thing and your opinior doesn't matter. The law doesn't operate that way. Not even close!! The scenery is lovely and the acting is top notch, except for the clown of a brother. Max Gail is compelling and captures very scene with a graceful power. Anyway, it lost me at the half hour point and never regained my full attention. What are supposed to come across as moving and engaging plot turns only come across as annoyances. These people are all supposed to be mature, responsible adults. None of their actions come across as so. It came so close to being a gem, but something was just off all the way through. It's a shame.....

"Abundant Acreage Available" is the kind of movie that is content to take its own sweet time telling its story. There is no particular interest in rushing fast forward from scene to scene at light speed. Or investing any real sense of urgency at all, actually. This is filmmaking done at an expressly intentional pace of leisure and deliberation. Particularly in this "gotta have it five minutes ago" mentality we race through with such fevered freneticism in today's world.

And it is f-----' wonderful.

This would quite likely be a whole different review if this domestic drama were left to the devices of lesser actors. In fact, "Abundant Acreage Available" would almost assuredly have been an excruciating exercise in relentless tedium if that were the unfortunate case. Gratefully, and emphatically, it certainly is not.

Amy Ryan, Max Gail, Steve Coulter, Terry Kinney and Francis Guinan are uniformly exquisite in bringing their respective remarkable characters to life. In so doing they give us genuine multi-dimensional human beings who resonate with understated yet resoundingly affecting fragility of both body and soul.

Writer, Director and Co-Producer Angus MacLachlan has crafted a beautiful chronicle of family, love and loss (with a big boost from Directorial legend Martin Scorsese, who Exec Produces here). MacLachlan's choice to use a generations-old North Carolina tobacco farm as the sole setting for "Abundant Acreage Available" brilliantly serves to softly amplify the pervading themes of isolation, loneliness and quiet desperation which so movingly saturate every single scene.

And, hey. Listen up all you mysterious voters of the confoundingly clandestine Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Amy Ryan gets nominated for "Best Actress". Okay? And Max Gail is up for a "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar. Got it? Alas, one can only hope. Each of these vaunted veterans have richly earned such lofty reward. Regrettably, it is unlikely that either Ryan or Gail will be officially recognized for their stunningly authentic performances. And while that is truly sad and indefensible, it certainly does not diminish the peerless quality of their work.

And finally, if you will be so kind as to indulge, I simply can NOT sign off until I get this out of my system.

Amy Ryan has the smile of a goddess.

Lamentably it was not on display near enough in this production, as her personification of Tracy is inherently solemn and stoic in nature. Still, when those precious few frames were delightfully illuminated by Ms. Ryan's devastatingly delicious grin, it was the stuff of pure magic, that from which springs enchantment in......well......what else? Abundance.

This film asks us to consider the multiple narratives held, transformed and given by the land. While we try to demonstrate ownership, or declare our freedom, through our own stories about a place, none of us can defend or maintain our boundaries for very long. With fine acting, a beautiful score and a well-considered but unadorned presentation, Abundant Acreage Available is an opportunity for recalibration through reflection on our common destiny. Highly recommended as an antidote to the Hollywood blockbuster!